


Take the Initiative

by CosmicTanzanite



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21839638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmicTanzanite/pseuds/CosmicTanzanite
Summary: Gyro Gearloose finally works up the courage to do something he's been wanting to for a long time.
Relationships: Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera/Gyro Gearloose
Comments: 5
Kudos: 207





	Take the Initiative

**Author's Note:**

> This was my piece for the 'Love is Like a Hurricane' LGBT DuckTales zine! I've never been in a zine before and this was such a wonderful experience. DuckTales means the world to me and I'm so very proud of the zine and everyone involved in it. I would also like to give a special thanks to lechepop on Twitter/Tumblr for putting it together. He is a great zine organizer and I cannot thank him enough for giving me and so many other talented creators the opportunity to be a part of something so amazing. Hope you enjoy my piece!

Gyro sat at his desk, eyes glued to the elevator. He was clutching the cup of coffee he’d just made, but his hands were shaking far too much for him to take a sip without the risk of spilling the drink all over himself. Heart beating faster than usual, Gyro allowed his eyes to wander toward the clock on the wall. According to it, the time was approximately 9 a.m. 

Any time now, his friend and coworker Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera would walk out of that elevator. This would be signaled by a loud ding. He would have an eager smile on his face, as he always did and might be holding a mug of hot water, his substitute for morning coffee since he claimed the latter might make him explode. Then, he would wave to Gyro and greet him good morning, which the inventor would reply to by asking him to come to his desk. Fenton would probably think it was for something work-related since the inventor’s mind was typically so focused on their job during these hours. He would soon find out that wasn’t the case.

Today, Gyro was going to ask Fenton out on a date.

Gyro typically didn’t bother with romance. He’d previously found that it required too much of his time and wasn’t something worthy of it in the first place. He felt a little ostracized from it as well, having grown up in a rather small and concentrated area where his attraction to men wasn’t exactly the norm or something he felt comfortable displaying in public.

But then he moved to Duckburg, a much larger and more accepting area, and a few years after that, Fenton came along. He was intellectually inferior, overly optimistic, particularly frustrating, just about everything Gyro figured he wouldn’t want in a romantic partner. When he’d first been tasked with sharing his workspace with the enthusiastic duck, he’d wanted to keep as far away from him as possible. However, he would come to learn that some things are subject to change, and this included his feelings toward certain individuals.

Fenton was persistent with Gyro from the moment he met him. He was quick to shower him with positive energy and friendly affection, things Gyro wasn’t familiar with. At first, they were unwelcome, but after a while, he began to realize just how nice it was to have someone acknowledge him in such a way. He also started to work more closely with Fenton on his projects in the lab. Everything the other did impressed him to an extent, as much as he hated to admit it. There were a lot of feelings he had for Fenton and his work that Gyro’s overweening pride refused to let him acknowledge until recently.

It had become apparent to him over time that the feelings he harbored toward his friend were a little past platonic. Gyro’s first impulse was to ignore them altogether and hope they would go away. He’d decided to do this months ago, and they’d only gotten stronger. Therefore, after several sleepless nights and distractions from work, he’d decided the best thing to do was to suck it up and ask Fenton out. It couldn’t hurt, right? Sure, Gyro was terrified of rejection and making his closest friend uncomfortable and losing such a supportive person in his life yet one he would have to see every day no matter what because their jobs required it, but he’d get past that! Hopefully.

Right now, his nerves were all over the place, and he had to tap his fingers against his desk and bounce his leg to keep himself from screaming and running out the door before Fenton even got here. His eyes were bloodshot from hardly blinking as he waited for the other scientist to step in. Then, all of a sudden, the elevator dinged, and the top button lit up signalling that someone was about to enter. Gyro waited with baited breath as the doors slid open, but his smile faltered when Launchpad stepped out.

He settled back down in his chair and crossed his legs, heaving a disappointed sigh as the pilot entered. Launchpad seemed to be looking for something as he approached Gyro, eyes darting around. 

“Hey there, Gyro! I was just wondering if you’d seen Fenton anywhere.”

“I was wondering the same thing,” Gyro muttered under his breath so quietly that Launchpad didn’t hear. He then shook his head. “No, I don’t believe I have. Why?”

“Oh.” Launchpad frowned. “That’s a bummer. I need to double-check when he wants me to pick him up for his date tonight.”

Gyro’s eyes widened at the reply, and it felt like a rock dropped in his stomach. He swallowed hard before speaking again. 

“His what?”

Upon hearing Gyro’s reply, Launchpad became visibly panicked. 

“What, did I say date?” he tried to backpedal. Unluckily, he wasn’t the best actor. “I mean, uhhhh...he’s going...to do...something that is definitely not a date! Something, uhhhh...not-date-like? Okay, I have to go now. Bye!”

Before Gyro could get another word into the conversation, Launchpad frantically shoved himself into the elevator and pushed the up button like his life depended on it. Once he was gone, the lab was quiet again, and Gyro had time to think.

For a moment, all he could do was stare at his lap while static flashed before his eyes. As he sat there trying to come to terms with what he’d heard, Gyro wasn’t sure if he felt sad or angry or jealous or if he wanted to scream or cry or bang his head against his desk out of the sheer frustration that he was too late. The day he planned to finally stop being such a coward and own up to how he felt about the guy,  _ this  _ happens? Why couldn’t it have been before Gyro had come to terms with his feelings so he could have never realized how he felt about Fenton or after they’d gone on one date and Fenton realized that Gyro wasn’t his type because obviously he wasn’t? 

Gyro tried to calm his racing mind by thinking rationally, something he always tried to do in moments like this. In the midst of the chaos that was his mind, there was one thought louder than the rest, and he chose to focus on it: he was too late. That was it. Of course, he would reprimand himself for this, but there wasn’t anything he could do to change the fact that Fenton had found someone else. It was best he accept his fate and begin the phase in which he would move on from what could have been.

Unfortunately, it was at that moment when the elevator dinged a second time, and Gyro was forced to see Fenton walking into the lab, causing his heart to start aching all over again. He tried his best to avoid eye contact with the other but ultimately failed, locking eyes almost seconds after Fenton was in the same room as him.

“Good morning, Gyro!” he greeted him, waving. 

Gyro couldn’t even speak, so he nodded and hoped it would be enough. Apparently it wasn’t because Fenton was now approaching his desk. The inventor rolled his eyes and mentally asked himself if the day could get any worse.

“What do you want?” Thankfully, Gyro being in a bad mood in the morning wasn’t uncommon at all, so Fenton didn’t suspect a thing.

“Nothing!” Fenton continued, wringing his hands. “I mean, not nothing. Of course, I’m coming to you for a reason, but it’s nothing important, or maybe it kind of is, but-”

“Then spit it out already,” Gyro ordered, pretending to look for something underneath the clutter of papers on his desk to avoid any further eye contact. “I have work to do and so do you.”

“Oh, you do?” Fenton rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe I should try this another day then.”

“Try what?” Gyro nonchalantly took a sip of his coffee to make himself appear uninterested. 

Fenton tensed up for a good moment, as if being crushed by the weight of whatever he was keeping inside. Then, finally, it burst out.

“Do you want to get dinner with me tonight after work?”

Gyro almost choked on his coffee. He winced and coughed as the hot liquid stung his throat, trying his hardest to gather his bearings in time to process what had been asked of him. Fenton, of course, kept rambling.

“I’m sorry! I don’t want to put any pressure on you. Don’t worry if you’re busy or have other plans or don’t want to or anything like- are you alright?”

“I’m fine!” Gyro desperately choked out, plastering a hand over his beak until he finally managed to catch his breath. When he did, he cleared his throat one last time and shakily looked up at Fenton. “What was that again?”

“Oh…” A small laugh left the other’s bill. “I asked if you’d want to go out to dinner with me tonight. Just, y’know, as friends in a way, but also because I know we’ve been talking a lot outside of work lately and thought maybe we should try to get to know each other better! So I guess, if you wanted it to be, it’d be kind of...well, I don’t know if I want to call it a _ date, _ but on the other hand, that is what I’m going for, yes.” 

He ended his long-winded question with a very nervous smile. Gyro took a second to absorb everything that had just been thrown at him, but obviously not too long because his first thought came tumbling from his beak before he could stop it.

“A date? With me? I don’t understand. I thought you were going out with someone else tonight.”

Fenton gave a noise of confusion and cocked his head to the side. “What?”

“Launchpad came in here not too long ago and said he would be driving you to a date tonight with...” The pieces finally came together in Gyro’s mind, and he glanced to Fenton. “Did you ask him to drive us before even bothering to ask me out?”

For a second, Fenton looked rather pale. Then, his bill curled back into the same awkward grin from earlier, and he brought a hand to his forehead. “You see, I might have actually asked Launchpad that a few days ago because I was supposed to ask you out on Monday after the investor’s meeting, but you seemed really stressed, so I pushed it back to Tuesday, and then Wednesday, and then Thursday, and I guess Friday kind of snuck up on me, huh?”

Gyro raised an eyebrow. “I see.”

The simple response seemed to deter Fenton’s confidence even more, and he sighed. “Yeah, I guess I kind of put it off longer than expected. I’m sorry if I’m too late.”

For a moment, Gyro left Fenton in silence. Then, he let out a gentle hum. “Well, I’d say this is quite an amusing situation we’ve found ourselves in.”

Fenton forced a laugh. “It is pretty funny.”

“Indeed.” Gyro took a deep breath. “But I have something to add to it that might make it even funnier.”

“You do?”

The inventor nodded his head, collected himself one last time and then, let go. “Right before Launchpad had me thinking I’d lost my chance with you, I was planning on asking you the exact same question as soon as you arrived today.”

Gyro watched as Fenton went from appearing perplexed to assessing his reply to realizing what he meant, taking mental notes on how the duck’s bill slowly dropped open as everything settled in. During this, a thick layer of blush became present on both of their faces, and they locked eyes once more. 

“You mean…?”

Gyro gave a swift nod, unable to say much more without passing out from how jittery he felt. After a few more beats of silence, Fenton began to laugh. It wasn’t a mocking laugh, not at all. His laugh was warm, soft, gentle, comforting, the kind of laugh that worms its way into your brain and forces you to feel so much joy that the only thing you can do is join. And that’s exactly what Gyro did. 

The two of them spent at least thirty seconds laughing together, relishing in not only the coincidence they’d found themselves in but joy and relief and genuine happiness. Gyro honestly couldn’t remember the last time he’d let himself laugh like that, but he always had a feeling that if anyone would get such a reaction out of him, it would be Fenton. He had surely been right. 

Fenton was the first to speak again, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. “Oh my goodness, that really is funny!”

“Indeed it is,” Gyro replied, sighing as he calmed down.

“Guess we were both all worked up over nothing then.”

“Seems like it.” The inventor adjusted his glasses, which had gone a bit askew during his spell of laughter. “What time did you arrange for us to go out?”

“Around seven, if that’s alright. I wanted to give you time to get dressed.”

“Dressed?” Gyro scoffed. “That won’t be necessary. I would have to leave the lab, and I didn’t bring a change of clothes.”

Fenton frowned. “Aw geez, really? I can make it later if you need me to. I really should’ve asked you out sooner, or at least waited to tell Launchpad that-”

“It’ll be fine.” 

“But then I’ll look overdressed!” Fenton rubbed at his arm. “My m’ma is making me wear a suit.”

“She’s in on this too?”

“Yeah. She has a way of figuring these things out,” the duck admitted. “Oh, and I also need to find out where you want to eat! That was something else I didn’t think over first.”

Noticing that Fenton was really starting to stress himself out, Gyro cut in. “I’ll tell you what. How about we do some of the work we have set out for us around the lab today, and then we can make more solid plans for tonight after?”

Fenton’s eyes lit up at Gyro’s suggestion. “That sounds great, actually!”

“Alright.” Gyro gave the duck one more smile. “Then get to work, you,” he added playfully.

The inventor’s teasing yet warm tone made Fenton blush even harder. “Will do! I’ll see you tonight.”

“We work together.”

“Oh, right.” Fenton chuckled. “Then I’ll see you at lunch! Or if I need to borrow something later on. Probably the latter.”

“You too.”

The duck returned his grin before walking toward his lab, a certain skip to his step that Gyro had only seen when he was exceptionally happy. It warmed his heart that he was able to give that happiness to him, to return the favor.

That being settled, Gyro returned to his work. He still found thoughts of Fenton present in his mind as he did so, but they were different this time. Beforehand, they’d made him feel anxious or bothered or afraid. Now, they filled him with the utmost comfort and motivated him to work even harder. If there was one thing this situation had proved, it was that Fenton was a bumbling mess just as Gyro had expected him to be from their first meeting. But he honestly wasn’t much better himself. That was just one of the many reasons why they’d fallen for each other.


End file.
